Use of rare earth metals outstripping supply

The US no longer produces or processes any of the rare earth metals used in …

Those of you who have spent time staring at a periodic table are undoubtedly aware of the large insertions that are typically stuck below the chart, since they'd make the table unreasonably wide otherwise. The top of these two rows is typically called the Lanthanide series, and it contains the rare earth metals, like dysprosium, holmium, and praseodymium. Although these exotic-sounding metals find their way into displays and lasers, they're primarily notable for their use in powerful magnets that appear in everything from electric motors to disk drives. And, according to a new Congressional analysis posted by the Federation of American Scientists' Secrecy News blog, the world is using them up faster than it can produce them.

The report itself doesn't really have much information that couldn't be obtained elsewhere, but it puts it all together in a very readable package. Right now, we're using about 134,000 tons of rare earth metals a year, but mining only 124,000 tons; the difference is made up using ore stocks that have been mined but not yet processed.

Demand is expected to continue to boom, but new mines and processing facilities take on the order of a decade to come online, so supplies are likely to get very tight in the interim. Right now, most of the rare earths are produced in China, but the country has been limiting exports of late, and its domestic demand is expected to outstrip its production sometime in 2012.

Congress is investigating because absolutely none of the production comes from the US. (Some ore is supplied by the US, but it was previously mined, and is shipped overseas for processing.) This is a concern because many military technologies also rely on the use of rare earths. The US has some high-quality deposits that are estimated to hold 13 percent of the global reserves, but much of it is mixed with thorium, which creates a radioactive waste problem that has discouraged their use. Even if we did start mining it, however, we don't have any domestic processing capacity, or any companies that are converting the results into finished products, like magnets.

As a result, several pieces of legislation are pending in Congress, most of which would require the Department of Defense to evaluate whether our supplies are sufficiently diverse to prevent disruptions; some of the bills would take steps to promote domestic production. The report also lays out some additional policy options, such as challenging China's rare earth export restrictions at the WTO. Overall, the report suggests it's not time to panic, but it might be time to get a bit concerned, and plan accordingly.

The US has some high-quality deposits that are estimated to hold 13 percent of the global reserves, but much of it is mixed with thorium, which creates a radioactive waste problem that has discouraged their use.

GAH! Reading this statement hurts.

There are 20 million Americans unemployed. Does "Obama" think they care about "radiation" vs putting food on the table and a roof over their kids head?

If someone wants to work in the Thorium mines what business does big government have standing in their way? And we have 2 million Americans in prison; shouldn't they be doing something useful rather than leeching taxpayers money?

Such a shallow minded thinking with an anti-government air about him ... must be one of those "tea bagged idiots" that I've been hearing about.

It takes a lot of work and skill to get to the point where you can handle thorium mining.

We probably should have seen this coming. The U.S. got distracted with raiding and meanwhile, Chinese farmers have taken control of the rich thorium veins. So now they can pretty much set the price at the AH and the U.S. will have to go through shady grey markets and cough up big time to get the mats necessary for the crafted gear that it needs to keep raiding.

If the U.S. wants to put a stop to that, it's going to have to take a break and do some grinding of its own to get its mining skill up to at least 230; preferably 255. It's annoying, but sometimes it has to be done.

The US has some high-quality deposits that are estimated to hold 13 percent of the global reserves, but much of it is mixed with thorium, which creates a radioactive waste problem that has discouraged their use.

GAH! Reading this statement hurts.

There are 20 million Americans unemployed. Does "Obama" think they care about "radiation" vs putting food on the table and a roof over their kids head?

If someone wants to work in the Thorium mines what business does big government have standing in their way? And we have 2 million Americans in prison; shouldn't they be doing something useful rather than leeching taxpayers money?

Of course not. Why on earth would I want to actually work to put a house over my head and food on the table when your tax dollars can do that for me? Got to love Obama; giving us educational cable susbscriptions so I can watch American Idol all day and Medicare-subsidized power scooters so I don't have to get winded when I putt on up to the mailbox to collect that welfare check!

"IntelPatriot wrote:If someone wants to work in the Thorium mines what business does big government have standing in their way? And we have 2 million Americans in prison; shouldn't they be doing something useful rather than leeching taxpayers money?"

IntelPatriot - Well, I don't think an one of us would complain about you specifically working at one of these mines and using your property to dispose of the waste.

Wait? You wouldn't want that? Not in "your" back yard.

That's what I figured. Very few people in any country would say differently than that.

As for as putting the waste in mines in barrels for our children's children and so forth can deal with it. What a **** if you care so little for your family and their decedents to want to create a ticking time bomb for them. Which is comparable to what our government (99% pre-Obama) did and our doing with our nation's economy and deficits.

What a crock considering Obama has tripled our deficit in half of the time.

"IntelPatriot wrote:If someone wants to work in the Thorium mines what business does big government have standing in their way? And we have 2 million Americans in prison; shouldn't they be doing something useful rather than leeching taxpayers money?"

IntelPatriot - Well, I don't think an one of us would complain about you specifically working at one of these mines and using your property to dispose of the waste.

Wait? You wouldn't want that? Not in "your" back yard.

That's what I figured. Very few people in any country would say differently than that.

As for as putting the waste in mines in barrels for our children's children and so forth can deal with it. What a **** if you care so little for your family and their decedents to want to create a ticking time bomb for them. Which is comparable to what our government (99% pre-Obama) did and our doing with our nation's economy and deficits.

What a crock considering Obama has tripled our deficit in half of the time.

Eva01

When did our deficit hit $42 Trillion dollars? Talk about trolling. Most of his first year budget was written by Bush, the stimulus was a one time event and needed to stop the dominos from tipping over, otherwise unemployment would be at 20% right now. Kind of hard to run a surplus when your in a recession with 10% of the population paying 0% in taxes on $0 income. Somehow you guys think if we just let the dominos continue to fall that we'd magically be in a better position right now, we'd only lose the entire auto industry as ALL the suppliers shut down when over 60% of their revenues disappeared by letting Chrysler and GM disappear into history. Then we can add a few more million from all the bank jobs and finance industry jobs lost.

On to the original story, big business will be more than happy to mine the US once they can get rid of all the regulations and safety standards they need to follow for proper disposal, and at the same time pay their workers minimum wage with no benefits and sign a contract that they can't sue their employers for the health problems they most definitely will have 20 years down the road, but don't worry, the companies will make a killing in profits, won't pay their fair share in taxes, and we the tax payer will get the bill for all the damage done (health of the workers, environmental damage) in the name of mining these resources. Just another case of privatizing the gains, and socializing the costs of the harm.

I think that the government would possibly care when those people came back wanting to sue for their sicknesses, and regardless of whether they signed non-liability agreements, it would look bad on the government for them not to help people out who got radiation sickness, even if it was their fault.

It takes a lot of work and skill to get to the point where you can handle thorium mining.

We probably should have seen this coming. The U.S. got distracted with raiding and meanwhile, Chinese farmers have taken control of the rich thorium veins. So now they can pretty much set the price at the AH and the U.S. will have to go through shady grey markets and cough up big time to get the mats necessary for the crafted gear that it needs to keep raiding.

If the U.S. wants to put a stop to that, it's going to have to take a break and do some grinding of its own to get its mining skill up to at least 230; preferably 255. It's annoying, but sometimes it has to be done.

LCD panels manufactured in China using Rare Earths are sold and then discarded in US. Recycling dead equipment would be a source of thorium free rare earths

As a bonus recycling the rare earths would allow less reliance on mined materials and our unmined resources can remain as insurance against future shortages. We will need a refining industry that can take either hardware or ore as source material. Maybe we can even start buying ore rather than shipping our rare earths overseas to be refined, used and returned as consumer goods.

It is obviously of utmost importance to declare mandatory:To make or destroy laws as necessary in order to "get to mining" here in the US!Sure, there will be a few ugly pits in the ground (with sensible enviro laws to prevent ground water contamination), so enviro's need to back off when it comes to the materials needed to slow the melting of the glaciers and peak oil, not that peak oil is {that much} of a concern, that all the other oil based markets {are} a concern. Natural gas can be used in this interim to displace both coal and oil!

Why then should it be mandatory to mine the rare earths here? Because even natural gas, although only emitting half the CO2 per kWh as coal, has it's own set of enviro problems, particularly fracturing of ground water sediments (clay or whatever that seals the water from the gas)and possible (it being a) greenhouse gas leakage. The rare earths will be needed to build all them {billions of} various different electric motors and possibly (and very much more important than just wind turbines), will be needed by millions of robotic arms that will make solar PV for (almost) free... Imagine all the install jobs...

China needs to keep their RE's if they are to become "green". How dare western policy makers try to even think about having China submit to "fair" trade laws" in that concern, shees, they already give us everything for dirt cheap!

I don't get it, what's the big deal of rare earths having thorium as a byproduct? So what! (now I need to do a quick search), Ok, it is considered safe to handle small amounts as it is a very slow alpha decayer, taking some 14 billion years to turn in to something else. Surely, if we wanted to make (more) nuclear bombs, this RE thing wouldn't help much as there is already enough uranium to do the job. Surely, uranium is more practical for making such (evidentally)...Thus, I reiterate, So what! We need the rare earths because it is not very mature to have to rely upon China for possible elements needed to uphold defense capabilities. Oh, and if the enviro's don't want billions of wind and solar generators (and the little dirty pits needed to build them), then they HAD BETTER go for thorium in the molten salt reactor or make their family live off the grid (without a solar panel???)...

edit:Bty, can anyone come up with a factual statement about "what would be the dangers of storing thorium in large amounts under a desert power plant". I would not be afraid to put "my share" (what a few miligrams!) in my yard in exchange for the tech wonders (and nature savers) the exponential renewable energy (assembled by robotic slaves) would create! Why, because I know it is not radioactive (to any alarming degree)! And yes, I prefer such solar expontiation, even over MSR's because with solar, there is NO way to make nukes.

Right...they have 13% of the world's reserves and complain there isn't enough.Minerals won't be out for hundreds of years from now. It's the extraction tech that needs to evolve. Just like in the oil market.

Oh yay, Canada. We apparently have 56% of known rare earth element deposits outside of China. We will share with you Americans in exchange for iPads and F-35s and the occasional bunk on the Intl Space Station. kthnxbye.

Most things that people buy get thrown away. Why aren't we simply getting back these rare metals from recycling? It seems stupid to throw away so much (i.e. bury in a big hole) and then complain that there's no natural resources left. Resources aren't infinite, therefore this cannot continue forever.

The US has some of the largest Thorium deposits in the world. They are doing some work with the Russians to develop Thorium nuclear power. Also Canada is working on converting the Candu 6 type reactor to use Thorium with a lot of help from China; India as well. Using Thorium in instead of other, current materials can eliminate fears of weapons grade materials being processed. You wouldn't have to worry about whether or not you want to sanction Iran if we (the 'civilized' world) could offer them a Thorium reactor for what they say are legitimate power needs. Read this.

The Chinese are eating everyone's lunch as far as rare earths go - even those not directly produced in China (like those in Australia) are owned by Chinese interests. There are other compaines coming online to process materials but they won't be up and running for months yet, some others even years. Many "green" technologies - things like power generating windmills and batteries for hybrid vehicles - need these rare earths and the project sizes and scopes mean that we need several times the amount that is currently produced worldwide to meet expected demand. Its surprising to me that there has been so little interest in the US over what's happening in the world of rare earths. Read this as well.

Not if only there could be a majority of relevent, useful responses to this topic Ars may post about it again.....

Most things that people buy get thrown away. Why aren't we simply getting back these rare metals from recycling? It seems stupid to throw away so much (i.e. bury in a big hole) and then complain that there's no natural resources left. Resources aren't infinite, therefore this cannot continue forever.

Let me try to teach you about how a free market works. It's all about price signals. When demand outstrips supply prices go up. This sends a signal to increase demand, which can be done in various ways. For this case, one way is to mine more, if not impaired by regulation. Another way is to recycle. How do you know whether it's worth it to recycle or not? Since you're not doing it, it's not worth it. If it was, someone would have already offered you money and you'd be doing it if you thought it'd be worth it. No one's doing that yet, so it probably isn't worth it yet to recycle.

The US has some high-quality deposits that are estimated to hold 13 percent of the global reserves, but much of it is mixed with thorium, which creates a radioactive waste problem that has discouraged their use.